The Lightning Brigade Incident
by Col. Toaster
Summary: When Tasha and her squad accidentally annihilate all but a single, friendly duster, she is relocated to the north where she learns a valuable lesson on revenge ... Rated T for language, violence and a spastic flight lieutenant. Don't forget to review!


Chapter 1: Friendly Fire

Tasha had lost everything when the meteors came down. Her family, her friends, her life had crumbled along with everything else in the world when on that faithful day. Revenge was what she thought about ever since she woke up in a destroyed building to find nothing but ash and dust around her. Revenge was all that she could think about when continued fighting for the Lazurian army and now it looked like her dark thirst for Rubinelle blood was to be quenched, or at least for the moment.

"Dusters coming up" she said through the radio. She had always dreamed of flying but never flying to kill. Now she was an expert in every type of aircraft in the Lazurian air force from transport copters to seaplanes, and she never missed.

"Lock on and fire on my command." As she peered out of the cockpit, she saw the dusters coming up quickly above the mountainous pass. She could see yellow lightning bolts etched on to the wings and fuselage of the plane, which was (to her at least) an obvious sign of complete and unflinching loyalty to the New Rubinelle Army, Lazuria's dreaded enemy.

"Fire!" With one word missiles flew through the air and sail towards all but one of the planes. Tasha savored the moment. Turning off her radio, she laughed and swore at the planes, firing off several missiles before switching the radio back on as the deed-neared completion. The dusters exploded with one hell of a bang, but as they passed overhead the final duster, an unknown voice screeched over the radio, "Friendly fire, repeat friendly fire!"

It was at that moment that Tasha's heart skipped a beat.

"Confirmed. Prepare to land at HQ airport." She said grimly into the radio. She was in for hell and she knew it.

Chapter 2: Lighting Strikes

As the fighters landed and docked into the hangar, a small but hardy duster, the same one as earlier could be seen in the distance, its wings rocking from side to side, as though the pilot was almost too traumatized to fly.

Sheepishly, Tasha climbed out of the fighter only to be met by a group of scowling airmen who nearly refused to refuel the planes used to shoot down fellow Lazurians. As Tasha looked around, she saw a recon vehicle decked out in red crosses arrive at the recently docked duster to take the pilot to the field hospital at camp. As the truck drove by, a second recon unit immediately arrived carrying the famed General Forsythe who, at this moment in time, did not look pleased.

"Tasha, come to my quarters in 2 hours. That should be enough time to clean up and repair that pilot's duster. Oh and you won't have to worry about the rest of your squad. We can only afford to hold one person responsible and that, however unfortunate, is you."

"Yes sir!" Tasha replied. She could tell it was going to be a long day. By the tone in the commander's voice, she knew she was in for a relocation and demotion at the least. As she began to check over the problems with the duster, she noticed many differences between this plane and standard ones. For one thing, the plane was supercharged. It had more fuel tank space, more powerful engines, reinforced plating and bigger guns. "Why, she thought, do we not upgrade all our units like this?"

As Tasha repaired and cleaned the duster, she wondered why she was to be punished. By then all the other pilots and airmen had left and she was the only one in the hangar. "Why should I be punished," she wondered, "If it weren't for those damn lightning bolts, we wouldn't have, oh." It was just as she finished talking to herself that she realized what she had done. She finally understood that she (albeit accidentally) ordered a squad of her own countrymen to be executed. However, this didn't make her feel any better. It just made her mad, and it condemned her to despise the Rubes with every fiber of her being.

After two hours of toiling on the duster, repairing shrapnel marks from the missile explosions and repainting the blackened areas, a recon unit arrived at the hangar.

"Uh, Commander Tasha?" the soldier politely inquired.

"Yeah I'll be right there," she replied. She walked quietly towards the jeep and got in without saying a word. It was a quick drive to the camp, but it felt long nonetheless. Its time span seemed to increase due to the uncontrollable silence. This was the first time Tasha had rode only with the infantry. This was also the first time she saw the intense discipline of their army pay off, in quiet respect, all eyes and ears focused on the task at hand.

After the drive was over, she walked through the camp towards the officer tent. As she walked into the tent, she could see how serious he situation was: Forsythe sat at the field operations desk and two officers were sitting next to him on his right. Even Gage was there, who looked more discontent than usual, sat on Forsythe's left.

"Tasha, this is a very serious problem. Friendly fire may be accidental but discipline must be maintained."

"Yes sir."

"In response to your brash actions we are going to relocate you to serve with another unit."

"But sir…"

"No buts! You are to serve with the Lazurian 9th in the northlands. Fortunately for you its summer there so the cold won't be your biggest problem. However they are involved in some of the heaviest fighting we've ever seen so you'll have to stay on your toes. Dismissed"

Chapter 3: Fire and Ice

"Damnit" muttered Tasha as she climbed into the recon vehicle, her trench coat flailing behind her. It had been a month and a half since she had left and she missed home dearly. She missed the atmosphere, the action but most of all, she missed Gage, who despite being "disappointed" at the CO meeting before she left, he still considered her, his friend (well as far as he would allow himself to have any friends).

She had tried everything to make contact with the Lazurian 3rd fighter regiment but to no avail. Cut off from contact with her old unit, this 3-month relocation was an absolute nightmare. Every moment she wasn't ordering units around and ushering in commands into a radio from a jeep or a tank, she was shivering in her tent. Everywhere she went, the cold followed. "When Forsythe said the cold wouldn't be a problem, man was he ever bullshitting me there" Tasha thought.

When she walked by to the hangers and bunkers to inspect vehicular firepower, soldiers saluted her needlessly; She may have lost her dignity but the respect for her up here was three times as much as it was in the south.

As Tasha boarded the jeep, the driver began to talk:

"Orders Sir?" he asked.

"Yes, pull up to ridge seventeen and make sure we have indirect support for infantry unit A and MD tank unit 7. We can't afford any more casualties. Oh and will someone get me a god-damned hot drink!"

"Sir all hot beverages and meals are restricted from free-rationing privileges for officers. Our supply lines are already stretched to thin, and…"

"ENOUGH GOD-DAMNIT! FORGET IT, FORGET I EVER SAID THAT, JUST NO MORE OF THIS MILITARISTIC BULLSHIT!" screeched Tasha with the ferocity of a tiger, "JUST NO FRIGGAN MORE!" The cold had taken its toll on Tasha. She had become more and more quiet, her fiery personality and talkative behavior had been replaced, letting hand signals and gestures do the talking and got more irratated more often. She was also getting thinner which drove her insane. Back with her own unit, food and drink was plentiful, but here, there wasn't enough food to feed even the slimmest Lazurian soldier!

As the recon unit pulled up on the cliff, Tasha surveyed the battlefield through her binoculars. The Lazurians had the upper hand in this battle, but the tide could change at any moment. As she scanned around she saw the Lazurian rockets collide with oncoming NRA tanks. "Right on time," she said to herself.

The battle raged on for several hours, all the while Tasha studied carefully. Her punishment was in accordance with her crime; strict orders for conservation of units and no needless creation of units either. This combined with the limited numbers of existing troops and vehicles and the lack of supplies to make replacements, put her on a very tight leash.

The battle ended in Lazurian victory and as the units pulled back towards the camp in the mountains, a second recon vehicle pulled up next to Tasha's. A soldier sprinted out of the vehicle and stood stiff while waiting for the commander to take notice of his presence.

"Report soldier," Tasha said without turning around

"Sir, the battle was of great success but there's an urgent message waiting for you at camp as well as new orders. Their posted at the camp bulletin"

"All right. I'll be there as soon as we have heard reports from all units"

Chapter 4: New orders

As the commander's recon unit pulled into the camp, there was an unnerving silence as Tasha stepped out to check the orders. Soldiers crowded around in a formal circle, eager to hear their new commands. The first message, direct from command, Tasha took great care in reading it, making sure all directions were understood clearly. The second message was "For the commander only" which she stuffed into the trench coat's oversized pockets.

"Command is ordering us to hold off a massive NRA assault at the northern bend. Pack up your stuff, were moving out in an hour." Tasha stated with a grim face. "This is war, she thought, and we will win this"

As Tasha retreated to her tent to gather her belongings and equipment, she decided to read the "personal message." As she opened up the letter, she was astonished that it was nothing like she had imagined. It read, "Due to complaints from the soldiers who think that your observation and order tactics are working to no effect, you are to fight with an infantry unit for this battle-Gage"

Furious at the letter, Tasha drew her handgun and fired no less than three rounds at it. Holstering the weapon, several soldiers rushed into the tent to see what was going on. She merely ignored them and walked out into the cold and began walking about aimlessly. "I swear it Gage, she whispered, if I make it out of this, I am going to make you pay."

Chapter 5: The Assault

KABOOM!

The shell exploded only meters from where the Lazurian lines had been set up.

KABOOM!

More shells fell upon the field of where the Lazurian infantry lay waiting to ambush. Tasha couldn't believe what she was doing. She knew that blowing up a squad of dusters was a serious offense, but being sent to the north lands to help ambush an oncoming NRA assault force? This was beyond ridiculous.

"Rocket support to wooded area 6, 5, and 7, we can't let those MDT's get through!" she exclaimed over the radio

In accordance with her order, rocket barrages occurred in the wooded areas across the fields, but the tanks were barely even scratched.

"Their untouched!"

"I can see that, fire the rockets again"

Again another barrage, this time on the fields to stop the tank advance.

" Tanks obliterated!"

"Infantry, incoming!" And they were showing no signs of stopping. Taking cover behind the yellow-black hulks that were once the tanks spearheading the assault, the infantry swarmed the fields. From their entrenched positions, the Lazurians exchanged fire with the NRA troops, and began to cut a swath through the enemy.

"Prepare to move in" Tasha ordered

"Charge!" As all available tanks, infantry and other vehicles moved in, Tasha's unit moved into an APC to be transported across the fields to the front line. Savoring the wind in her flowing red hair, she decided to take the ride as an opportune to see how things were going, Tasha drew out the binoculars, but before she could even remove the lens caps off of them, her heart sank, for what she saw spelled instant death to the troops below: bombers

"Oh Jesus Christ." she muttered

Fortunately for the revenge obsessed girl, the sole survivor of the friendly fire accident took no such feelings into account.

Chapter 6: Resolution

"This is Duster 357 along with lightning brigade, here to provide air support!" the pilot said into the radio "And Tasha I know your listening, I think you owe me one"

"Damn right I owe you one!" she exclaimed joyfully into the radio. "Take out those bombers and they'll be drinks all around!"

"Sounds good. You heard her, boys, now take out those sons of bitches!"

All at once it seemed, three reformed squads of lightning brigade charged the incoming bombers and reeked havoc. For Tasha, it was a beautiful sight. When the battle ended, the Lazurian 9th had earned the title "warriors of the north", and with one hell of a party, all the battalions left for the south to take the fight to the Rubes.

A month later, Tasha kept her word and met up with lightning brigade back in the south of Lazuria, meeting up with all the pilots that had aided her in her moment of need. Shortly after arriving, the survivor pilot walked up the his commander and began talking.

"Permission to speak freely sir"

"I owe you a lot, so go a head"

"Well, I just thought I'd let you know that revenge is a vicious circle and moving on in life is what really matters."

"Understood. I'll keep that in mind next time we face off against more rubes. Is that all? "

"No, I also wanted to say that this is a pretty shitty party"

Enraged by his final comment, Tasha kneed the pilot in the chest, despite the fact that she had been saved by him. Though he had just preached a message of anti-revenge that Tasha would probably remember for a while, he should have been preaching to her about her violent temper and how to keep your emotions under control.

After the pilot walked away in a state of what looked like severe agony (Tasha was almost certain she had heard something break when her knee hit his ribcage ), a certain blue-haired character entered the tent and to Tasha's amazement, was happy to see her but when he arrived he was greeted with an ice cold slap to the face and a shin to the crotch.

"That's for the shitty order you commissioned" Tasha said, but then hugged Gage and proceeded to say "But that's because I missed you so much." Gage returned the hug (much to Tasha's amazement) as the party continued. It was around that time when Forsythe arrived and greeted and congratulated Tasha on the good work. After that, Forsythe announced that "Maybe we should relocate Tasha more often!" It was also around that time when Tasha's joyful smile quickly faded away and her left eye began to twitch uncontrollably.


End file.
